Monday, October 15, 2012

Several weeks ago I signed up to participate in an mismatched earring swap / blog hop hosted by Diana Ptaszynski. I was bit hesitant since I rarely make jewelry - I even overheard Cynthia Deis say I get "whiny" whenever I do. Well, when I heard that I felt a bit of self defense kick in and thought really loudly in my own head: "I don't really whine, it is just more of a whimper. Just enough to make some designer near me take pity and finish up the piece for me." That's all - just a few quiet whimpers and the jewelry always gets finished. (- hey, it works for me )

Anyway, back to this earring swap. I signed up thinking - "How hard can this be, the earrings don't even have to match." So I put it off, put it off and put it off as the shipping deadline is closing in on me. I'm telling myself, don't worry - you are thinking of designs in your head; it won't be difficult; you can do this; tomorrow you'll start....all this because in reality I have zero design ideas - none, notta one. So the shipping day gets here and I make myself stand in front of the bins where there are most likely a couple thousandElaine Ray Beads sitting waiting and hoping to be chosen to become a pair of earrings. I take a deep breath, reach for my bins and then the whining begins. Real, loud, self pitying whining. Why did I sign up for this, this is too hard, I can't design one - let alone two earrings; why can't I just send my swap partner a big handful of beads so she can design her own earrings. I whine some more and start pacing around, beads poured out of containers, beads poured back into containers, and on and on. Finally, my daughter Cora steps in and talks me down off the ledge of my kiln. Cora is level headed, she doesn't get frazzled, she asks a simple question: "Do you have any samples of 'mismatched earrings' to work from?" Tada! "Why, yes I do" - I say as my heart rate slows and my voice pitch lowers a bit. I show her Diana's original blog post inviting everyone to the blog hop. Cora calmly points out: "OK - it looks like Diana has a 'theme' to her earrings, lets start there." Smooth sailing from there on out. Thank you Cora.

Now, on to the earring reveal. All that whining, worry and work was well worthwhile. Take a look at the earrings that Carolyn Collins of Sparkling Waters Studio sent me:

WooHooo! I am sooooo lucky to have such a talented swap partner. In love with these earrings I am!

Here is what Carolyn has listed:

Fine .999 silver electroplated finding

Vintage jewelry box - art glass - key

Repurposed silver tray in keyhole shape, hand stamped

Close up of the back of the keyhole - these earrings certainly found love here in NC.

And here is a picture of the beautiful packaging Carolyn sent my precious gift in:

Saturday, October 13, 2012

One down with 5 to go. These chairs are from my Grandparent's house - I have had them for close to 8 years and finally decided how to restore them. I always thought they'd have to be stripped and refinished to show the wood. This was way out of my price range to pay to have it done and way out of my time range to do it myself. The joints have been cracking one chair at a time and we were down to only one chair that could be sat on safely so it was time to do something.... Pinterest to the rescue! I saw some painted chairs there and thought why not - it the best of worlds the wood would be preserved, but at least now the chairs get to see the light of day. My daughter helped me choose the fabric and paint color. When the chairs are all done, I'm thinking about doing the table in a really dark blue. I'm sure the paint will get chipped, so then I'll claim to be going for a "distressed" look.

I seem to be happiest when I have some sort of projects happening. What house projects are you working on?

About Me

I am on a journey creating art out of clay, celebrating the fact that my creations are made of tiny bits of the land we walk and live on. I try to always leave a bit of clay showing to remind us of the small pieces of earth that we are holding and loving.